semi-coherent ramblings

changes!

2010-07-23T10:33:00.003-04:00

It's been awhile since I posted, and things have really changed around here! First off, Amos built a new, gigantic clothesline and It's been pretty fantastic. I can dry a load of diapers and inserts, as well as 1-2 loads of regular laundry all at the same time! I also got a really cool wall-mounted extendable drying rack to use on rainy days. It's set up over the tub so any drips will go right down the drain.

Our super big news is that Madelyn started walking!!! She took her first steps on July 10, at exactly 9 months and 1 week old. So early! M has been super ahead on all her motor milestones. It's been really great, and really scary at the same time. She is so cute when she waddles around the living room with her toys. She is now able to walk all the way across the room without falling, and she is even able to bend over to pick up a toy without falling. I can't wait for her well-check appointment next week so we can show her doctor.

Last night was really fun! I participated in my first twitter party, which was for #rumparooz #clothdiapers. They were giving away a few prizes to help celebrate their new website opening and their new prints (which they didn't reveal and we have to wait. what's up with that??). Anyway, I was chatting away with the mama who owns RG Natural Babies and suddenly my name was being retweeted all over my tweetgrid. I won one of the prizes!! I will be getting a $25 gift certificate to Franklin Goose to buy a Rumparooz diaper!!! I am so super excited because I've been wanting to try one of these for awhile now. Now I have to decide if I want to wait for the new prints to come out, or just go ahead and get one and then *maybe* get a second one with a new print... lol. I know what I *want* to do... :-D

Daddy Time

2010-06-02T20:09:00.001-04:00

Had tons of fun daddy-time with Mad today. Yay!

tooth

2010-05-18T12:50:00.003-04:00

I totally forgot to mention in the last post that Madelyn got her first tooth last week. :-) she's working on the second one now. Her gummers are super swollen and she's been pretty fussy this morning so I'm guessing today or tomorrow.

CD update

2010-05-18T12:34:00.002-04:00

It has now been a couple of weeks and we are doing cloth diapers almost full time. We are still using some super heavy duty disposables at night because Madelyn sleeps through the night AND is a heavy wetter and I'm not exactly sure how to tackle that combination at the moment. I'm awaiting a free (hooray for #operationfluffy giveaways and deals!) Babykicks Bumboo diaper with hemp inserts and that might be the answer. Word on the street is that hemp inserts and doublers are a million times more absorbent than microfiber. I'm going to try it out one night and see what happens. I'm expecting a wet baby, but you never know. The diaper should be here sometime this week.

Normally I line dry the diapers in the backyard. I had to go to 4 stores until I found a stupid retractable clothes line, and the ones I did find are so cheap and crappy. I got 2 to use until Amos builds a good clothesline in the yard next month. I can barely fit 2 days of diapers on the line so I can't wait until I have a bigger and better one so I can also hang the cloth wipes, wet bag and laundry bag up to dry. Oh and one of the lines on the crappy set broke already and I had to MacGyver it back together. woo.. It's laundry day today and rainy. My first attempt at drying a full diaper load inside. I have everything hanging on clothes hangers on the shower curtain rod. Fun stuff!

(ignore the dirt.. the previous owners had a pool in the backyard and we're working on growing grass)

reaching for the stars

2010-04-30T15:47:00.003-04:00

i got a big box in the mail today. well, 2 boxes. one box was a free sippy cup i got form juicy juice. i like free things. :-) but my big box was the exciting delivery. we ordered a dozen happy heiny diapers! hooray! they're on the last wash cycle right now and then i'll hang them up to dry. it's almost 90 degrees here with a light breeze so i'm hoping they dry quickly. either way, we will begin our semi-full time cloth diapering tomorrow. :-D starting on a saturday is extra great too because amos hasn't done too much with the diapers. this will give him some time to get the hang on it. yay.

in other news, madelyn has started pulling herself up to standing this week. amos found her standing in her crib a few days ago. since then i have watched her pull herself up in the crib twice, once on me, and just a few minutes ago she did it in the pack and play. the next step would be for her to sort of walk alongside stuff while holding on, and then full on walking. we suspected madelyn would be an early walker since she has been ahead on all her milestones since pretty much day one, but now it's looking even more probable. scary! we have the baby gate up (she's been crawling for awhile now) but we still need to get corner bumpers and some drawer/cabinet latch thingies.

more cloth diapering: day 2

2010-04-22T14:11:00.002-04:00

i washed all the diapers before bed last night. i did a cold rinse with no detergent, then a hot wash with detergent and a cold rinse. it will be great when we have enough diapers to only need to wash every 2 days and not every night. i hung everything up on the drying rack and stuck it in the bathroom so that cats wouldn't mess with it overnight.

in the morning, all of the inserts and diapers were dry.. except for the prefolds. they were still pretty damp. so i left them on the rack and moved it out to the back deck for some more drying time.

i decided to stick with the same order of diapers, so in the morning we went with the bum genius. today i used the same insert, but added a doubler. i also was extra careful to check the diaper and make sure everything was tucked in right and that madelyn's clothes weren't stuffed in anywhere. after our bottle, play time and nap we had dry sheets! and a dry baby! hooray!

we changed into the happy heiny, also with an insert and doubler. off we went for another bottle and play time. we had visitors today and madelyn got to play with kayley for awhile. they're 4 years apart (almost to the day) and it was really fun to watch madelyn stare, wide eyed, at kayley while she played. :-) the girls had fun. then it was time for a nap! when madelyn woke up again we had dry baby. :-)

when i started to change her i noticed her bum was a little red and i decided to give her some nakey time to air out. then she started getting really fussy and was scratching herself. on closer inspected, i realized we had the start of a yeast rash. so unfortunately we are taking a short break from the cloth diapering until we're done with her bum medicine. hopefully some major amounts of air time combined with some lotrimin/triple paste will clear it right up. there's a chance that the redness is from some residual detergent left in the diapers after washing so i will start adding an extra rinse from now on. this rash looks identical (but more mild) than her last yeast rash though so i'm pretty sure that's the problem. i don't have enough cloth diapers to last through a bunch of extra changes, and i don't want to fuss with stripping diapers that i've only had 2 days so i'm going to use some sposies until we get this cleared up and then start up again super soon!

i also need to get a retractable clothes line for the backyard. while i've been typing this the (light) breeze blew my rack over 3 times... lame.

it's a long one... my first attempt at cloth diapering...

2010-04-21T17:53:00.004-04:00

okay this is super long, but i wanted to record everything partially for anyone who is interested and so that i can remember which diaper i like better and why so i know which ones to order more of! :-D I'm typing this up throughout the day as we swap diapers , eat and play so this is also a slight peek into my daily life.
My cloth diaper experience:

I ordered all one-size pocket diapers, and one diaper cover:

1 fuzzibunz, white. came with two inserts and replacement elastic sizers

1 bun genius 3.0, pink. came with one big insert and one infant/doubler

1 happy heiny, yellow. came with one big insert and one infant/doubler

1 thirsties cover, floral.

1 roll of flushable, biodegradable liners bu Kushies. it's basically a toilet paper roll but thicker, more like a paper towel.

i washed everything in super hot water with a teeny bit of detergent. i have a front loader and used tide HE free and clear. i hung everything to dry on my back porch. and hour later, all the diapers and inserts were 90% dry. i was pleasantly surprised. the thirsties cover was totally dry, but it didn't have any cotton or microfiber to hold any water.

from my research it seemed that i had 3 options for prepping the liners to maximum absorbency. i could either wash them once and see what happened (most likely leaks) wash them many many times, or boil them for 20 minutes and then wash twice. yeah… i boiled. i then washed them with no detergent and added an extra rinse and called it a day. i hung them to dry in front of a fan (it started raining) and they were completely dry within 2 hours. i stuffed the dipes with their corresponding inserts (left out the doublers) and called it a night.

Day 1: Using each pocket diaper with only one insert and no doublers.

in the morning i woke madelyn up and got her set up in the bum genius.

:-) the inside was very soft so i felt bad about putting the liner in. she didn't seem to care though, as she was totally distracted by the velcro tabs. we did our morning routine of a bottle and some playtime in the exersaucer. i checked her diaper before naptime and it had some poop. i removed the liner and threw it out. the diaper seemed okay so i just went ahead and fastened it up and put her to bed. we had been changing sposies just after naps so i wanted to see how this would fare for that length of time. when she got up from her nap, the crib sheet was dry. yay! i brought her to the changing table and then noticed her shirt was damp on one side. i *think* the shirt might have been tucked into the diaper or the liner was sticking out or something. so i'm not sure if this is technically a leak. i also read that cloth diapers will frequently leak when you first get them until they are cleaned many more times. so we shall see. maybe i should have changed her completely before her nap, but time will tell. i shook out the insert and tossed that and the diaper in the washing machine and put it on rinse, but no spin. i still need to order a wet bag… then i'll be able to skip that step

Our next diaper of the day is the yellow Happy Heiny.

i prefer the overall feel and appearance of this diaper to the bum genius. it was also easier to attach, even though both the HH and the BG are velcro. the tabs on the HH are larger. Time to test it out! this awake time we had our bottle (which madelyn held almost entirely herself!) and some butternut squash. yum. after her tummy settled, it was play time. she crawled all around her little baby jail and gave this diaper a work out. after she wiped herself out for the morning, it was nap time again. i didn't check her diaper before this nap.

lunch time for mommy! (a.k.a. mommy drinks a slim fast with one hand while emptying the dishwasher and cleaning the kitchen with the other hand…)

After madelyn's nap, i was greeted with wet sheets. madelyn tends to nap on her belly so i think we had some leakage out of the front of the diaper. i cleaned her up (easy since she just slept in her diaper) and put on our fuzzibunz. this was my first attempt with snaps. the only issue i had was that madelyn is long and skinny and her super trim waist was on the small side for this diaper. the best fit actually had the tabs overlapping each other so i had to get creative. luckily there are plenty of places to snap into so i think i found a way that worked. i didn't try adjusting the leg elastics yet so we'll see how that goes. after madelyn had her bottle, it was time for mommy-daughter playtime. :-) and then another nap. i have a good feeling about these fuzzibunz so i'm hoping for a dry baby when she wakes up!

okay now i'm really going to put the dishes way… i totally got distracted during lunch and ended up shopping online for a wet bag.

okay we are up from nap time. the fuzzibuns leaked. but only a little! there was barely any wetness on the sheet so i didn't have to change it this time. when i picked her up i discovered the leaking from from the leg holes. i will shrink those up for tomorrow. so far, the fuzzibuns are in the lead because even though it did leak, it was an area i had not fitted specifically to madelyn. the other two diapers i did size for her and they leaked anyways. but again, they probably all just need extra inserts. madelyn is currently lounging in a thirsties cover stuffed a tri-fold prefold, an insert on top (the second insert from the fuzzibunz set) and a liner.

this diaper cover seems more like a sposies with the gussets in the leg area. this cover was the easiest of all to put on and madelyn seems pretty comfortable in it. i plopped her on the floor and gave her a bottle, which she held up herself again, although she did it laying down. such a big girl! she is now sucking on some grapes through her mesh feeder. time for me to make dinner while she plays!

okay- nap time over. and we have leakage! just a small little puddle. not sure where it came out of. i took out the prefold and insert and wiped down the thirsties cover. this time i folded the prefold in what i think is the "newspaper fold" with the last microfiber double inside. i then wrapped everything in the thirsties cover once more. If we have time for another cloth diaper tonight i will try the twist bikini fold. and then it's back to a sposie for night time.

tomorrow i plan to do pretty much the same thing, except change diapers before nap time and see if a fresh one prevents leaks. i might try adding extra inserts and/or prefolds as well, but i'm currently limited on my insert stash so we'll see how far that gets us.

during the day i found out from my lovely babycenter friends that babysteals' steal of the day was a gro-baby diaper set! i contemplated this purchase for about 3 nanoseconds, hopped over to the gro-baby website for price comparison and more info, and then bit the bullet and ordered the steal. so whenever that shows up we will have 3 more cloth diaper shells, and 150 disposable liners. those liners will be great for traveling, between laundry loads or if amos and I are sick and totally just don't feel like it. lol. or if madelyn is having a serious case of the craps… ;-) anyways. in addition to the disposable liners, these shells can go over prefolds and fitteds, just like the thirsties cover so that will be extra helpful in increasing the number of changes we can do with what we have. all we need now are to buy/make several more microfiber inserts and get a few more pocket diapers and prefolds. then we should be set until madelyn is potty trained! for the next kid we will probably need to add a couple more diapers to the stash, but nothing compared to the cost of disposables. it will be fantastic!

on a side note- for now, we are planning on using sposies during the night. we use 12 hour+ baby dry pampers and she fills those up. I'm not sure how she compares to other babies, but i have a feeling madelyn is a heavy night wetter. we might try CD at night in the future, but for the time being we're just going to work on mastering daytime. :-) we also plan to use sposies during trips as well, simply due to the convenience of not needing to mooch someone's washing machine.

this concludes today's novel.

so long, sammy!

2010-04-21T12:39:00.003-04:00

we had been talking about finding a new home for sammy since about 5 minutes after we brought her home. that's when you know you've made a bad decision.. lol. she's the sweetest cat ever, but too destructive. after replacing laptop charging cables, madelyn's pacifiers and bottle nipples, taking down shredded window screens, etc... we finally decided it was time to stop talking and actually start doing. so last week i put a totally illegal ad up on craigslist. (did you know you're not supposed to advertise animals? but since i saw a whole mess of free cats on there, i decided why not. what would they do to me. take the ad down? ban my account? whatever. new email addresses come cheap these days). the next day we had found sammy a new mommy and the day after that i took her to sheetz for the transfer. it was sad. i cried. and then sammy scratched me so hard that i have a HUGE painful gash on the palm of my hand, 2 scratches on my chest, and another shirt to add to the "all tore up" pile. i was no longer crying. lol. well, i wanted to. damn that hurt. anyways. she's gone now. the funniest part of the whole thing is that we used to feed 4 cats 4 scoops of food a day (2 in the morning, 2 at night). now that the feline garbage disposal is gone we feed 3 cats 2 cups a day total. they barely noticed the change. hooray for cutting our cat food bill in half!

we miss you sammy. our bank account does not.

temporarily blogging again

2010-03-02T15:20:00.003-05:00

we're back after a month long hiatus. welcome to our temporary blog home. this is a great example of why vanity URLs are great for blogging. we're still with blogger (for now..) but we have a completely new account. instead of two separate blogs for karen and amos, we can now blog in the same page. so when amos writes his annual post you can read it right along with mine. :-)

anyways. down to business.

it's snowing again. let's refresh our memories about this winter. it snowed a smidglebit in early december. nothing worth noting. there was white. we rejoiced. then on december 18, the sky crapped white all over town. we had over 2 feet at our house. it took exactly 1 month for the snow to melt. and then 5 days later it snowed another foot. and then a few days later another 2 feet. that snow is still melting. so you can imagine my excitement when i look out the window and see a mini blizzard going on. the snow hasn't been sticking for the past few hours, but my car is now starting to turn white.

snow is pretty. i love it. i grew up near the coast of california. it snows there like 1/4 inch every 30 years. it snowed seriously the WEEK AFTER I MOVED. i am not kidding. i was so pissed. the snow in december was awesome. it was my first major storm. i didn't mind shoveling. i didn't mind being snowed in for a few days. it started getting a little older after a few weeks of dealing with the aftermath, but whatever. flash forward to the present. over it. done.

when is spring? not the day we proclaim it to be said season, but the time when it's done snowing and the days start warming up. i want to open the windows. go on a walk. not shovel snow.

trying something new

2010-02-02T21:56:00.000-05:00

blogger is making changes and dumping FTP posting. it kind of pisses me off but whatever. i'm using this as an opportunity to make some changes to the blog, starting with a fresh blogger account. this is sort of a test paragraph. good times shall be had.

the cat is out of the bag... i mean, house...

2010-01-26T12:51:00.000-05:00

when i moved in with amos, we had his dog Nippy and my cat Pickles. a perfect nuclear furfamily. that was almost 3 years ago. two weeks before our wedding, we were at the barn/historic civil war plantation where we had our ceremony and reception and we found a family of abandoned kittens. the owners let us take one home. we named him Sparkplug. (we're wierd. whatever). at the wedding, my aunt, who is president of a large animal shelter in new jersey, rescued another of the kittens, took him home to get him healthy, and then gave him back to us a few months later. we named him Gigabit. everything was happy in family land.

then, we went to petco to look at the kitties. well... we walked out with a cat. (not from the store. there was a family there trying to find a new home for their pet since they were moving. i don't believe in buying from pet stores. much better to rescue IMO). great. we named her Sammy. (amos technically named her Samantha Sandwich, but i'm not going there...)

DEVIL CAT. OMG. she has eaten SO MANY of Madelyn's bottle nipples, the rings, toys, everything. all the bottle caps have gnaw marks on them. she shreds paper, eats plastic bags, tore our new curtains, jumps on the counters, unrolls the toilet paper, steals things off amos's desk, fights with the other cats, steals the baby's socks, shredded our brand new quilt my mom made for our wedding (fixed already), eats our food. we caught her once on the stove sitting in the middle of our fry pan... eating our dinner. oh and yesterday she chewed through her THIRD macbook charger. those things are EXPENSIVE. Amos said he was sad she wasn't electrocuted. i *think* he was joking. GAH.

so yesterday we threw her outside. or "placed" outside i should say. placed gently and non-abusively. outside. FOREVER. she's still our kitty. i believe in forever homes and we made the decision to adopt her, so she's ours for life. a very very long life.... anyways. she's got her little collar, and i made a temporary outside shelter for her out of a cardboard box, plastic bag for waterproofing, and an old blanket. going to do something better in a few months when we have dollars to spare for an igloo or something. she loves being outside. i can tell she misses the inside, playing her (the baby's...) toys and everything, but i just can't do it.

last night was great. we left some mail on the dining room table. i left baby bottles on the counter. we left amos's office door open, when i woke up this morning (on my own, not from having a cat claw my eyes out asking for breakfast) everything was still in its place. it was fan-tastic. right now, i'm even using our bottle drying rack out on the counter. with things on it! drying! wow!!

the sad part, is this is "madelyn's cat." we got sammy about 2 weeks before maddy was born. they hang together during tummy time. but i guess an almost-4-month old doesn't really care if "her cat" is outside now. :-)

ahh. sweet relief.

white christmas

2010-01-01T09:54:00.000-05:00

this year marked madelyn's first christmas, and it was a great first christmas. it was a little tiring because we had to split it between both families. next year, not so much. we're going to have one family get thanksgiving and the other get christmas, and trade off each year where we do each holiday. i'm putting my foot down on this as it is just too much for the baby (and us) to spend the christmas holiday traveling here and there and doing all kinds of funky hours.

anyways, back to christmas. the festivities started off with amos' aunt's annual christmas eve party. as usual, there was a lot of extra delicious food. we're so lucky to have such wonderful cooks in both of our families, and since they do completely different styles of food, we get a great variety wherever we go. i do have to say, that i love aunt lu's macaroni and cheese. sorry, mom. :-)

maddy received her first gift that night. (well, we had gotten her 3 richard scarry books already, but they weren't necessarily christmas presents, it just happened to be christmas when we got them). madelyn's grammie and grandad got her a beautiful sled! she's a little too small to ride in it now, but next winter will be so much fun. i took the (empty) sled out for a spin yesterday to see how well it did, and it skidded along great. as soon as she can sit up on her own, we'll get a picture of her in it and i'll post it up here.

christmas morning was very low-key at our house. i don't know if it's laziness or apathy, but other than the christmas tree, we didn't do anything this year. lol. i guess with a new house and baby we have plenty of excuses. anyways, we eventually made it over to grammie and pop heston's house for christmas breakfast with the extended heston clean (my mother-in-law's family). after another delicious breakfast by marie, it was present time. madelyn got so many cute clothes and very very much appreciated diapers. :-) diapers are always a big hit as presents. :-) after some family photos and catching up with relatives, we returned home. amos' parents came to pick up nippy and we had another gift exchange with them. madelyn got super cute wrist rattles that have been on her hands almost non-stop since. then, it was time to make the trek down to moneta to the dungan estate.

my dad's two sisters had come for christmas, which was super great. other than the wedding, i hadn't seen betty since 1999 and jacque since probably 1995 or something. it's rough growing up thousands of miles away from all your relatives. at least we're closer now and maddy will be able to know her whole family. (well most of it. there's still a few people far away)

we left nippy at home because jacque and cliff had brought their two french bull dogs. amos and i totally want a frenchie now, but we need to wait until our current pet situation as decreased. there were 4 dogs in the house, and nippy wouldn't have been pleased.

after a yummy christmas dinner, it was time for presents once more. maddy got several cute outfits, but the winner of the day was her new doll, "dollie," from her nana. (my mom). she is in love with this doll. she hugs it, chews on it, stares at it's face. it's so cute. amos and i have actually started looking for another one that we can have as a spare in case anything happens to the current dollie.

we stayed at my parent's house for a few days. it was madelyn's first extended stay anywhere, and only her second night away from home. but she did pretty good. christmas weekend was the first time she ever slept completely through the night. i'm talking like 10 hours here. she's still doing it now a week later. :-) hooray!

i'm tired of typing so i will end this. it was a good christmas. not that i've ever really known a bad one. the year my parents sold the house in california and we spent christmas in a (very nice) apartment near stanford with no decorations and most of our belongings either in boxes or already in storage in virginia was pretty special though.. lol.

happy new year!

baby it's cold outside....

2009-12-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

i'd like to submit my nomination for "mother of the year." this morning, madelyn and i took an early trip out to target and the grocery store to make sure we were stocked up good before the coming snow storm. while we were in target, i heard the unmistakable sound of a baby crapping herself. (and shortly thereafter, i smelled it as well). so when we got back to the car i got ready to change her in the back seat. only then did i remember that the travel changing stuff is at my in-laws right now. so i laid her on her blanket and removed the nasty diaper and then attempted to clean her up with a clean diaper. so of course, she decided to pee all over her jammies and the blanket the second i took the old diaper away... luckily, i had *just* bought a pack of onesies at target, so i grabbed one out of the trunk and changed her. one problem: it was short sleeved. and since she had been in her jammies, she now had no socks or pants or anything. and don't forget she had peed on her blanket too. any other day, i would have come straight home and just done the rest of my shopping later. but with the biggest snow storm in several years quickly approaching, i sorta needed to continue. so here i am walking around with my 11 week old daughter in a short sleeve onesie, no socks, no pants, no hat, no blanket. oh and i failed to mention it was 27 degrees out.

do you think i qualify for this award? lol. i'll get the travel stuff back at christmas, but i probably should have put some wipes in a zip loc bag or something until then. and perhaps i should keep a spare blanket and outfit in the diaper bag as well. in fact, since we now have *3* diaper bags (we bought one and then got 2 as gifts) i should just pack a whole set to keep in my car just in case.

and so marks my return to blogging.

here's a cute pic of madelyn to make up for my absence. :-)

babies!

2009-11-09T10:26:00.000-05:00

madelyn elizabeth was born at 6:40am on October 2nd. We've obviously been a bit busy with her (and still moving stuff into the house) so that's why there's been no posts lately. i also haven't been able to update a lot of the side panels, or the weather box (although moving 2 towns over doesn't really change the weather a whole lot...) because my PC has been packed up for months. but now that is set up, and updated to windows 7, and now i have access to all my web files.

i'm still working on establishing a schedule for my own life now that there's a baby involved, so it will probably be a bit before there's regular posts, but i will try!

mini update

2009-09-19T08:37:00.000-04:00

we moved. new house is great. still settling in.

we got another kitten. last one for many several years so nobody panic. more info on that later

we're going to have a baby any day now. i'm tired and cranky and miserable.

better update later after baby is here. for now, i am going to go forage for food. each meal i have could be my "last" before having hospital food. i have to make them count!

p.s. contractions suck.

ouch II and baby shower!

2009-08-26T12:48:00.000-04:00

i had my little surgery last thursday. it was one of the more painful experiences i've had. turns out i had this lovely little bump pop up, called a mucocele. it sorta looks like this, but mine was about twice the size and in the corner of my upper lip. anyways, big scissors came at my face and i was thrilled. i'm kind of a bleeder, so it took the doc quite awhile to stop the bleeding. in the end, half my mouth (top and bottom) and part of the face skin around the corner of my mouth was cauterized with silver nitrate. that's some painful shit.

the doctor said that while people get these things for other reasons, that mine was most likely a very rare side effect of pregnancy. thanks, baby! in a few months when you're getting your vaccinations and i start to feel bad, i will simply remember that i had to go through oral surgery without anesthesia for you and feel better. but i'll still give you an extra hug. lol.

so yeah, in addition to the loveliness of the procedure, i also couldn't take pain killers afterwards. it's been about a week now, and the pain is just now going away. it still hurts if i bump the exact spot where the funky scab is (it's white. mouths are gross), but the surrounding area is finally back to normal. my next wish is to eat with a spoon and brush my teeth without pain. :-)

anyways, the day after my face was removed, most of the black, dead, cauterized skin came off. i wasn't able to smile or laugh and eating was pretty tough. more came off on saturday, and aside from my crooked smile and a bit of pain, i appeared to be normal. which is good because my baby shower was that afternoon!

funny side story: amos and i totally though the baby shower was on sunday, not saturday. so we had about a 3 hour warning to be there. normally plenty of time, but i was trying to make my face look normal so i panicked. lol.

the baby shower was great! we had it at my in-law's house and had several friends and family there. baby madelyn was given all sorts of awesome gifts and we can't wait to use all of them. we received lots of useful supplies like diapers and baby wipes, but also plenty of super cute clothes. my mom also passed down a lot of my baby things which will be great to use.

because of the move, everything is still at the in-law's house. i'm sad. i REALLY want to get the nursery ready. it's driving me mad. i think i would totally be nesting right now if i could. but i'm going to stop talking about the move before i scream. the best we've been able to do so far is set up the diaper bag for when we go to the hospital, and we installed the car seat. everything else is in the storage unit or at the in-law's. sigh.

hopefully my next update will be about moving. like actually moving... or at least closing... sigh

ouch

2009-08-19T13:13:00.000-04:00

i'm going to be having oral surgery sometime in the next week. without anesthesia. this should be good...

moving update

2009-08-13T14:20:00.000-04:00

so... moving sucks. a lot.

so we sold the house at asking price. that is good

the buyers asked for all of closing costs. that is acceptable

the buyers asked for our (very expensive and not fully paid off) wood stove. that is okay

the inspector said our foundation needed repair. that is bad

the contractors rolled their eyes and basically took out existing posts and put new ones in for funsies. that is annoying. and expensive.

the buyers wanted the unused cistern capped off. that is acceptable.

the termite inspector found past evidence of termites. that is bad.

the termite inspector did not find signs of a current infestation. that is good.

the contractors said the damage is many many years old and doesn't need repair. that is good.

the termite people are treating our imaginary termites tomorrow. that is ridiculous.

the well inspector found bacteria in our water. that is bad. and gross.

the well people will install a fancy UV light to kill it. that is expensive. but acceptable

the buyer's loan has not been signed yet. that's just fantastic.

the closing on selling this house is now delayed until that's signed. that's peachy.

the closing on buying our new house also gets delayed because of this. freaking awesome.

and now we are stuck living in our 90% packed up house, with just the clothes we had left out for moving this weekend. amos had to cancel all the electrical/internet cut-offs at the old house and installations at the new house. i am now paranoid about our well water, even though we've been drinking and cooking with it for years. i've started boiling it before i do anything. i researched the type of bacteria it is and most likely amos and i have become tolerant of it over time, but it is bad for babies. that was close.

so yeah. the stress levels in this house are through the roof. we keeps having to spend money on things that aren't even broken. (except the well. that's gross.) the only humor i've gotten out of it is that since the "damaged posts" in the foundation were replaced with shiny new ones, the floor has begun to squeak. we'll tolerate it for a few more days. the buyers can deal with it for a few years. have fun with that.

thought of the day: don't buy a 100 year old farm house and expect things to go smoothly when you sell it later. especially when you're selling to what appears to be a 12 year old boy and his paranoid girlfriend. the nice, new, 10 year old house we're buying has very very few problems. our only repair requests were to replace 2 leaking faucets. it probably cost them a whopping $50, compared to the thousands we're spending. the sellers of our new house have no idea how lucky they are.

happy anniversary!

2009-07-27T16:24:00.000-04:00

yesterday was our first anniversary. we had an extremely romantic day. first, we went to target and returned a maternity swimsuit. with packing and moving, there's no time to go find a pool. after that, we went to lowes and bought this lovely new washer/dryer set. :-) i gave amos the washer for our anniversary. he gave me the dryer. how sweet. we took one of them over the storage unit and will go back next week when the other one comes in. (i forget which one was in stock). upon returning home, we went into the garage and sorted through trash and crap and did some packing. we then took *another* trip over to the storage unit. on the way home, we stopped at the store and picked up milk, cookies, ice cream and cake.. lol. we then came home and had a fine meal of leftover meatloaf, instant mashed potatoes and cookies. we then spent the rest of the evening browsing the internet on our respective laptops. we lead the most awesomely exciting lives.

but seriously, there's so much crap going on right now with selling this house, buying the new one, packing, getting ready for the baby, etc. after the baby is here, we'll try and get away for a weekend and unwind. in the end, we spent our entire anniversary together, which is all that matters. :-)

happy anniversary, amos! i love you!

house!

2009-07-21T14:33:00.000-04:00

it's been awhile since i posted on here, but things have been a little crazy. the power is out right now (has been for over an hour... sigh) so i'll go ahead and type this up and post it when we're back online.

i have no idea where i last left off in house updates, but at any rate we have finished them. we put our house on the market on Wednesday, June 8th, got an offer on Monday, June 13th, put an offer in on our own home Friday, June 17th and it was accepted. moving fast! right now we're working on fixing up the few things that came up in our buyers inspection. we also need to get to work on having our new house inspected so we can move forward with that purchase. crazy times.

the new house is great. it has 3 bedrooms, 1.5 baths, eat-in kitchen, living room, family room, split level deck, decent sized back yard, an out-building, paved driveway. and it's across the street from a registered historical site (Fairfax Hall) so it is highly doubtful that our view of trees will go away any time soon. the neighbors to the left have a small baby, and the windows in our house face just blank walls on theirs. to the right of us is a small apartment complex. it seems very quiet, only one unit overlooks the yard, and it's not like we're prancing around naked so not a big deal. the windows in our house that face that direction actually face a small retaining wall, flower bed and then privacy fence. the back yard is fully fenced with the privacy fence. we can let the dog out! yay! oh and my new refrigerator has an ice maker. that's a big deal for me. yay!

ooh the power just came on. let's see if it stays. it flickered on for about 30 seconds 15 minutes ago and then died a painful death when i was about to see if the router was getting ready. my laptop battery is also dying a painful death...

progress

2009-06-22T04:40:00.000-04:00

a lot has been accomplished in the past 2 weeks. we now have carpet in the living room, bedroom and on the stairs. i repainted spots in the living room and bedroom. the old cabinet is out of the bathroom and the primer is drying on our new built-in shelving. we bought a new set of living room furniture (entertainment stand, coffee table, end tables) and picked up some nice table lamps. the lamp shades are neat. when the light is off they look plain beige, but when you turn the light on this funky pattern shows up from the inside layer of the shade. it's like two lamps in one. i might just be exaggerating the coolness factor to make up for the excessive price of the set though.

other than picking up a few things off the floor, the living room is DONE. woo! we finished something! the bedroom is almost done. i need to find a plant or two for upstairs. we also have a conspicuously empty corner, but since the cradle my dad is building will eventually go there, i'm hesitant to fill it. although ideally we'll have sold the house before she arrives. after the built-in is finished in the bathroom (probably today) we just have one more smallish project of putting this fake tile sheet thing behind the toilet and sink for aesthetic purposes. then i'll need to repaint 1 wall in the bathroom around the built-in and new heater, remove 95% of all the crap in the room, and that will be done. the kitchen is a whole other story... anyone want to help amos move a 2,000 lb wood stove to the garage? over a gravel driveway? yeah...

squirmy!

2009-06-08T14:36:00.000-04:00

so i was laying on the couch and checking out how my stomach is super lopsided when all of a sudden my belly jolted. i kept watching and it moved 2 more times. i saw the baby move! super awesome.

in other news, the heaters are completely installed. just have 4 walls that need paint touch-ups (3 colors unfortunately...). we're going to lowes tonight to see about getting carpet installed. and while we're waiting for that to happen, we will do our mini bathroom built-in shelf project, paint 3 ceilings and then we list!! yay!!

healthy someday?

2009-06-05T21:26:00.000-04:00

so tuesday morning, at approximately 2:00am, i learned that there is some virus going around that causes nausea, vomiting and diarrhea. i discovered this at the precise moment that it hit me. it was the really awful sickness where you don't know which end should be facing the toilet... TMI, i know. i ended up sitting and holding a bucket in my lap. for 3 hours. i lost 5lbs. i then sat on the couch for another hour before trekking back upstairs to bed, where i got a grand total of 30 minutes of sleep. ugh. it's now friday, i haven't gotten sick in any way since that morning, but my stomach is still angry. luckily, i had sims 3 to distract me from the awful. the past two days i've eaten pretty much average for being pregnant. (today i had pizza for breakfast and lunch, grapes for snack, salad for dinner and then a BIG bowl of ice cream. yum).

unfortunately, amos caught the death virus on wednesday and ended up staying home from work for 2 days, missing the last day of school. sad. but he's doing better today and made it in to work, so hopefully our week of extra sick is done. well.. 2 1/2 weeks of extra sick for me since i had *just* finished those stupid pills THE DAY i got sick. sigh.

in other news, all drywalling is done. just waiting for 2 spots of mud to dry and then i will finish painting, we'll get the heaters all wired in and this project will be DONE. my parents are coming up on sunday so my dad can wire everything into the circuit box. amos is working on getting the individual heaters installed right now. i'm hoping this project will be 100% complete by early next week. then it's carpet time! and then we list the house!!

let there be sims!

2009-06-02T15:58:00.000-04:00

YAY!!! time to upload! oh, and special thanks to UPS for apparently putting me almost last on their delivery schedule for today. it is much appreciated. i also would like to thank you, 2 years later, for putting me last on your schedule when you delivered my previous macbook. i'm really starting to feel the love.

good deal!

2009-06-02T12:15:00.000-04:00

last night after an impromptu chinese buffet dinner, amos and i decided to see how low the glorious staunton mall had crumbled. (the answer is "very low.") we went into bath and body works to see if they had any foot soaks for my preggo footsies, and we found this. i debated buying it since it's $15 for a sorta small bottle. amos convinced me that if my feet were hurting bad enough, i probably deserved it, so i grabbed one and we to the counter. well, somehow it rang up as $3.75! needless to say, i bought 3. i tried some out last night in a plastic tub and it feels great! i went online to see if it's listed as clearance or something and it's not. so i wonder if it was just in the register wrong or a store-only discount or whatever. regardless, i'm pretty pleased.

springy mc summer!

2009-06-01T14:18:00.000-04:00

happy june. it's such a pretty day out. if my feet didn't hurt i'd totally take the dog on a walk or something. it's in the mid to upper 70s with a nice calm breeze. a big contrast from the massive pop-up thunderstorms we had rolling through last week.

so the neighbors across the street began mowing their lawn at 3pm yesterday. they are STILL MOWING IT NOW. it is 2:30 the next day. we're going on 24 hours to mow a lawn. for perspective: they have .25 acres, including a very large house. we have .75 acres and a small house. it takes amos 1 hour to mow. yesterday, the older dad in the house (i call this house the "clown car house" because about 4000 people live there and constantly pile in and out) started mowing yesterday and it seemed like he would mow for 5 minutes and then take a 30 minute break before starting again. now i know he's a little overweight and that mowing could be pretty strenuous... if you have a push mower... they have a riding lawn mower. some other random person is mowing now. it's a little rediculous.

ok back to my usual mid-afternoon routine. watching TLC, eating a snack and waiting for amos to get home.

pills suck

2009-05-30T09:41:00.000-04:00

so i haven't written much lately. mostly because i feel like crap. we went to the doctor last friday and found out we're having a girl, which is super awesome and i'm so happy. but we also found out that i have a UTI. i had no symptoms and felt fine, so i was a little surprised. anyways, as many of you know, i'm allergic to every antibiotic i've ever been prescribed so i was a little aprehensive about trying another. well, luckily, we seem to have found the one known a.b. that i'm not allergic to. (too bad it's prescribed literally only for UTIs.) the only problem is that i have EVERY side effect. nausea, stomach cramps, exhaustion, headaches, a threw up a teensy bit once, and just a general feeling like i have the flu. it's been pretty awesome. my last dose is on tuesday.

speaking of tuesday, that's when sims3 comes out! woo! i've been a huge sims fan since the original came out way back in like 99 or whenever. i remember pirating it off the web while living in the dorms. i had just about every expasion pack (all pirated, because i was a bad girl) and played the original game all the way up to grad school. i remember sitting in the back of our "diversity in education" class during summer and me, hayley and a few others would just sit and play sims in the back row on our laptops. hah. yeah, i got a great education. anyways, sims 2 came out in 2004 and i did buy that one. i have bought all EPs and stuff packs since the 2nd game. i think i've spent enough money now to make up for stealing the original game. my current plan is to play sims 3 for a week or two, just to make sure i love it (why wouldn't i?) and then sell all the parts of sims 2 on ebay and see if i can get a few bucks. woo!

anyways, time to go be productive around the house. amos is almost done pulling wire and installing boxes for our new heat system. all that's left is wiring up the actual heaters, connecting everything to the breaker box, and then drywalling/repainting bits of the house here and there and then we're DONE! just one very small weekend project after that and i think the house will be ready to list for sale!

e.t.a. forgot about installing carpet. i wonder what other non-small tasks i forgot? my goal of listing the house by june is obviously not being met. adjusted goal is july. ready, go!

yay!

2009-05-23T09:08:00.000-04:00

it's a girl!

paint!

2009-05-15T13:53:00.000-04:00

i'm taking a small break from packing/staging to work on some more curb appeal. amos and i picked out a light grayish-blue shade, undescriptively titled "courtyard shadow," to paint the exterior doors. the inside of each door, plus the framing of the glass panels are being painted bright white. i'm also repainting all the framing of the doors bright white.

i finished the front door last night, and it looks pretty sharp. today i wiped down the inside of the kitchen door and the hosed, scrubed, bleached and hosed again the outside of the kitchen and back doors. my goal for today is to paint the inside of the kitchen door. i won't be able to paint the outside until amos moves some wires that are draped over the top of the doorframe. i also won't be able to paint the back door until there's a stretch of days with a no-rain guarrantee, as there is no overhang there, and the rain always pounds against that side of the house. there is plenty to do inside the house, so i won't get to rest while i wait for sun!

packing is lame!

2009-05-13T13:54:00.000-04:00

so packing up a house and staging it to look its best is extra exciting when you're still going to be living in the house for an unknown amount of time...

the main focus for this week has been the kitchen. i've done 4 cabinets, a drawer and a section of counter-top so far. only 10 more cabinets, 7 drawers and the rest of the counters to go! hm... that doesn't make me feel better. maybe i should get back to work...

garden time!

2009-05-10T18:04:00.000-04:00

i just sat down from working on the garden. i think that will be my last attempt at any real labor until after the baby is born. i may not be able to walk tomorrow...

today's goal was to add some more color to the front of the house to help catch people's eye when they come out to take a gander. (i'm not sure if i mentioned this on here yet, but we're putting our house up on the market ASAP and moving to a larger place more suited for chil'rens)

Here's the before photo with almost entirely green foliage and last year's mulch (too bad all my tulips and hyacinth already bloomed, they're so colorful)

and here is the after photo with new plants and fresh mulch. unfortunately this only shows the large pink plant and some of the orange marigolds. there are also some pink dahlias that are hidden by the rose trellis and several more marigolds on the right side of the garden that isn't included in this photo. as a bonus, if you look very closely in the window, you can see mr pickle's eyes reflecting back. silly kitty.

not too bad for an hours work. i also moved the old rocking chair to the left side of the porch. all we need now is a grandma to rock there while holding a rifle and drinking whiskey and we'll be all set.

the next plan for the front of the house will be to paint the door. right now i'm thinking a very subtle slate blue. that should go nicely with the gray siding.

newsies

2009-05-08T08:09:00.000-04:00

so, since i'm going to get back into the swing of regular postings, i guess it's about time to mention that i'm pregnant. like 5 1/2 months along. probably not a big shocker to anyone now since it's been on the facebook and all. but now i've said it here as well.

this is pretty much the reason for the site revamp and getting back into things. i'm not going to bore the facebook world with endless stories and photos of our little midget. i'll do that here. :-)

we hope to find out the sex in 2 weeks! yay!

2009-05-07T15:02:00.000-04:00

i revamped our site today with a whole new css layout. i think i've fixed most of the bugs, but if anyone finds something please let me know so i can fix it.

more changes to come!

2009-03-12T14:31:00.000-04:00

it's been awhile since i posted last so here's a quick update. there's been a lot of changes in the past two months. lots of exciting news which shall be revealed in the near future. stay tuned for a slight site redesign (very slight. i'm too lazy for a complete overhaul) and a more thorough update soon. and by soon i mean maybe in a month. :-)

2009-01-13T10:54:00.000-05:00

Happy new year!!
Soon i will be able to post more often, because in less than 2 weeks i am going to part time!! wooo! i have semi-mixed feeling about it. i really do love my job as a manager and i've devoted pretty much my entire life to this job for the past year and a half. but it's time for me to devote my life elsewhere. like perhaps, to my life. i'm young and i'd like to experience some things while i'm young. i want to travel, start a family, work on my house, return to school, etc. and these are all things i have been unable to do because of my job. i will be taking a pay cut, working significantly fewer hours, and my boss has already started treating me differently, but it's worth it. i'm taking a class starting next monday, i go to the doctor to start fertility treatments february 3rd, amos and i are going to the outer banks at the end of the month, and i'm going to finish painting the house soon. i'm not wasting any time getting started on the things i have put off for so long.

2008-12-17T21:11:00.000-05:00

christmas is almost here!! yay!! that means that things will calm down at work, the near year is almost here, and it's almost time for me to start working part time! wooo!!

the crazy holiday season + management job in retail = the main reason i haven't been on here much lately. look for more frequent updates after everything calms down. :-)

2008-10-13T10:55:00.000-04:00

i declared today to be a day of productivity. i made an eye appointment (since i kind of see two of everything and decided it was perhaps time to get my contacts adjusted), emptied the dishwasher, took the dog out, and then promptly sat at my desk to peruse the time-suck that is facebook. now i am at a loss over what i should do. i could wash the small bit of dishes in the sink, clean my car, take the dog on a walk, go through another box of crap to hopefully throw away, do some gardening, update the website some more, read/watch cnn and become informed... or i could continue to sit here and do nothing.

is it bad that i am perfectly content to do nothing? i guess i work so hard most of the time, usually multitasking my brains out, that when i have the time to sit and do absolutely nothing, i enjoy it. it feels kind of lame.

anyways, much of the world will be relieved to hear that i am back on SSRIs. every time i go off them, i hear from pretty much everyone around me that i really should consider starting them up again. I've now gone off my meds three times, in three different states, around three entirely different groups of people, all with the same reactions. so i guess i shall be taking looney pills until the end of time. but that's okay. for anyone who's been living under a rock and is unaware, i have super extra severe agoraphobia, claustrophobia, panic attacks and generalized anxiety disorder. i took beta blockers when i was too young for real meds, and since then i've been on prozac, paxil, lexapro, effexor and now celexa. i'm pretty good at hiding my shit. i had a panic attack last night at work during a meeting and i doubt anyone noticed. good times. i've been on my new meds for about a week now and i'm already feeling better. should be a few more weeks before it's kicked in all the way.

i'm also now taking metformin (glucophage) for insulin resistance and PCOS. it's great! it's really surprising how many issues are caused by my stupid PCOS. (if you've never heard of it, go look it up. it's not well known, but a large number of women have it without knowing it). My acne is massively improved in just one week and i've already started losing weight. woo! i'm having a little trouble adjusting to the meds because it messes with blood sugar. i keep having drops. i have to eat small meals pretty much all day long (known as the "hobbit diet" at work) and i have to start keeping track of simple and complex carbs. i also keep having horrible hot flashes, which i'm sure are somehow related because they started about the same time i began my new meds.

anyways, his royal highness, sir nippy, is barking at me to take him out yet again. maybe i'll clean my car out when i'm outside.

2008-09-21T09:54:00.000-04:00

so i haven't posted on here in a really long time because my work just relocated to a brand new and shiny store! yay! i put in about 90 hours of work last week, moving every book from the old store to the new one, shelving, alphabetizing/categorizing, putting out a world's largest truck load of books, setting up fixtures and installing shelving. yesterday i nearly killed myself several times by dropping heavy crap on my feet, cutting my leg and finger, smashing my toes, and lifting excessively heavy items high over my head. add into that getting about 8 hours of sleep TOTAL for the entire week, a day of vomiting, eating only once a day, etc, and you can imagine just how exhausted i am. time to go see how much weight i lost! (other than the new store, i'm calling that my silver lining).

our new store is so awesome. and so ends this rare edition of "karen talks about work."

2008-08-04T18:51:00.000-04:00

Amos and I got married!! yay! we're back from our honeymoon. i will write all about it and post a billion pictures soon. as soon as we get everything from the photographer i'll probably post a large album either here or on flickr or something. woot!

2008-07-23T18:31:00.000-04:00

Amos and I bought a 2008 Honda Civic EX-L in Atomic blue, as is pictured to your left. this little beauty is going to be primarily my car, and we're taking it to Canada on our honeymoon since it has super awesome gas mileage. i have named her "rosie" in honor of the cow who sacrificed her life so that i may sit on her lovely leather. :-) i love my new car. it has a super smooth ride, great audio system, a SUNROOF, defrosting size-view mirrors (hell yeah!) and all sorts of other goodies which make me extremely happy. yayayayayayayayaya!!! bye bye crappy saturn from hell who does not like to actually start every time you turn the key...

anyways, my new car is great. i'm sure i will be talking about it a lot and posting pitures at some point. :-) The wedding is in 3 days though, so it's time to go and do some work! gotta pack for the honeymoon!!

2008-07-13T19:11:00.000-04:00

we got a kitten! his name is "sparkplug." we found him at the barn where the wedding is. we were planning on getting a kitten when we got back from the honeymoon but this kitten sort of walked right up to us, let me pick him up and stayed in my arms purring the entire time we were at the barn. before we left, they asked if we wanted him. we couldn't pass up such a sweet kitty. especially when we were going to get one anyways.

we think he's between 4-6 weeks old. when we get back from canada we're going to take him into the vet for a checkup, vaccines, and an age estimate. we have posted pictures here in the albums section, and we also put a bunch on sparkle's new catbook page. good times.

p.s. it's too hot.

2008-07-04T10:27:00.000-04:00

1. What drink wakes you up best in the morning?
usually diet coke/pepsi. I need to start drinking OJ and healthy crap tho.

2. During the day, what do you drink to keep going?
Iced vanilla lattes, or some crystal light.

3. Do you drink the recommended 8 glasses of water per day? Why/why not?
i don't, but i really need to. I usually make a good attempt but fail miserably.

4. What are the ingredients of your favorite mixed drink? (Doesn't have to be
alcoholic!)
sloe gin fizz! sloe gin, pineapple juice, 7up (i think... something like that)

5. Are you a coffee drinker? How do you take your coffee, if so?
definitely. i usually like lattes, blended iced coffee or similar drinks. when i drink hot coffee i like it with a shot of hazelnut syrup and a bit of milk. we're getting hazelnut coffee at work soon. i'm stoked.

in other news...
last sunday, we were supposed to go to a family bbq at amos' aunt's house. but when we got there i found out it was actually a surprise bridal shower for me! apparently everyone around me has successfully kept this secret for a few weeks. i'm impressed. and super pleased. i will have to write more later because i need to get ready for work, but i had a great time. :-)

2008-06-28T11:53:00.000-04:00

in an attempt to post more frequently, i'm going to start doing the friday 5. i am already failing however since it's saturday. go team. anyways, here we go:

1. What was the last thing you purchased from a vending machine?
- I got a diet coke from the machine at the mall when the store ran out of it. it was tragic. cost me 15 cents extra.

2. What was the last thing you made copies of on a photocopier?
- something for work. i think fliers for educator day but i don't really remember.

3. When did you last use a pay telephone?
- freshman year of college while on a band trip (i'm such a dork) i called my boyfriend in los altos, ca from a payphone in seattle, wa and pumped through about 400 quarters for 5 minutes. extra lame.

4. How often do you visit an automatic teller machine?
- very rarely. i just get cash back at the grocery store. but amos and i did go this morning and grab some cash

5. Which of your daily tasks would you most like to see automated?
- i want a robot to wash my dishes for me.

2008-06-06T11:26:00.000-04:00

the weather channel and it's wicked stepchild weather.com have just had 400 points deducted from their bank. the national weather service issued a tornado warning in north-central minnesota over 30 minutes ago. both the tv and internet versions of the weather channel have failed to mention this. and it's not like it's just "oh a tornado is very likely to form, there's rotation blah blah." no, there's an actual tornado on the ground. like eating dust and zipping north-east at about 25 miles per hour. and the lady keeps saying "no watches or warnings, yay!" great job, weather channel. way to save some lives.

if you want to know what the weather really is where you're at, go to weather underground or the national weather service.

in other, semi-related news, here in virginia we're under a heat watch all weekend with heat index heading up towards 110. good times! i'm bringing a thermometer and my heat index chart to work because i am a big dork.

2008-05-16T03:14:00.000-04:00

oh, i forgot to mention. after nippy ate my allowance a week ago, he apparently got a taste for money. 2 nights ago, he ate half of my old debit card... this is going nowhere good...

2008-05-16T02:35:00.000-04:00

ugh. i'm hot, and not in the good way. it's 2:30am and i've been up for an hour already. hopefully i'll get a few more minutes of sleep between now and 6:45 when i have to get up for work. i haven't been feeling well the past few days and since last night i was pretty sure i'd throw up if i took any of my pills, i skipped taking my sleeping pill. to no one's surprise or amazement, i am now currently awake, lounging on the couch with my cat and laptop. (see image for pictorial proof of said situation). in a few minutes i plan on connecting to my desktop via my laptop so i can play mahjong or something without the inconvenience of getting off my ass and walking 5 feet to the desk. life is great. except for the insomnia part.

anyways, yesterday, amos and i drove down to roanoke to meet my parents for lunch and general wedding dramarama. we ate at the olive garden and then my dad ran off to lowe's for manly things while amos and my mom and i went to michaels to look at flowers and marbles. unfortunately we were unable to locate the marbles i had lost during a previous visit. funny, yeah? i thought so. afterwards, we went to david's bridal, made amos wait in the car, and went in to try on my dress after it's alterations. hooray for fitting. and by fitting i mean hooray for being super tight. i play to lose a few more pounds so it can be not so tight. with current weight loss patterns and the added benefit of whatever bug/flu/poison i currently have, this should not be an issue. i have lost 5lbs just since 6pm last night. granted, i gained about 5 lbs in the days previous due to a binge of pizza nearly every night.. but that's totally beside the point.

anyways, after the dress-up party, amos and i drove back up to staunton. my parents called my god-parents son, who is a lutheran minister, and asked about him performing the ceremony. so we spent oodles of time pouring over the copy of his standard ceremony. being a religious man, there was a whole lot of god and jesus in there. amos and i sat down with a big pen and a highlighter and cross out, edited and circled all 15 pages until we had made it non-christian, and with just enough god to satisfy the reverend. we picked a passage out of the bible that does not mention religion once, took out all mentions of jesus, and requested that the sermon be extra short and pertain to people of all beliefs. we also decided that we're going to pick out a nice bible to have as our "family bible" and have it be the book that is read from during the ceremony. we also decided that in time, we will also have a family torah, a family koran and a family any-other-book-we-think-of. any suggestions? i told amos we should get a family satanic bible. lol. that's a little bit overkill. we will probably leave that one out of the collection. anyways, this way our kids will be able to chose whatever religion they which, if any, and be able to understand the world around them. go team open-mindedness.

anyways, i have yet to write my post about going shooting. bang bang. so here's a quick rundown. me, amos and my boss went to a shooting range out near craigsville. i've never shot before, never even held a real gun, other than a little bb gun that belonged to julie's cousin in oregon. a shot a .22, .44 (i think?) and whatever type of rifle amos has. my observations are: rifles = painful. the .44 is loud. i like the .22. jeff's gun had a neat little scope on it with a light inside of it. i think it was set for a much further distance than we were shooting so after awhile and starting using the sights on the gun. or whatever they're called. we shot the crap out of an old CPU case, along with random cans and plastic bottles. and i accidentally pointed a gun near my boss after a hot casing landed on my shoulder and distracted me. yeah. not good. but other than that mildly unnerving incident, i actually had a good time. i've been collecting up all sorts of crap to shoot next time we go.

ok well i'm starting to feel anti-good once more so i believe i am going to end this post. i'm starting to doubt that i'll be getting any more sleep tonight. should be yet another fun day at work with extreme exhaustion. i had planned to stay a little later to make up some time this evening.. we shall see...

2008-05-09T21:39:00.000-04:00

my dog ate my allowance. for real. he actually ate it. i should post pictures. when i went to bed last night, there were two $5 bills on my nightstand. in the morning they were gone. and under the bed i found one bill with lincoln's head completely chopped out and another with both ends chewed off. so i guess that in the end i currently have enough to make one $5 bill... so i'm going to see if there's a possibility of trading these guys out for some real bills. amos says that if you have at least 50% of the bill, it is still good. and i definitely have more than half of each. we shall see. good times. thanks, nippy.

in other news, last night royally sucked in weather land. we spent the entire evening under a tornado watch, and about a half hour under a tornado warning. we had a nasty thunderstorm and some hefty downpours. i've been awake for 40 hours straight now.. yay. i just took a sleeping pill, so sleep will come soon. i took a whole pill. first time.. crashy mc sleepy times. hopefully.

2008-04-19T02:42:00.000-04:00

yay, it is another bout of insomnia. goody. i thought i was tired enough so i didn't take a sleeping pill. poor choice. and yes, i now have prescription sleeping pills since my chronic insomnia is so bad. i've been to the doctor a good bunch lately. apparently my pancreas is trying to kill me. i was tested for diabetes earlier this week. luckily, i do not have diabetes. yet. i still have hyperinsulinemia, which causes hypoglycemia after eating. i was diagnosed with this a few years back, along with PCOS, and since it is getting worse, i'm being sent to a nutritionist at AMC to find out what foods i should be eating and running away from. i am thrilled. also, i somehow managed to go from super great cholesterol levels on a previous test to super bad on this week's test. i am now taking medication to lower it and have to start exercising, changing my diet (further limiting my delicious food loves) and losing even more weight. apparently 50 lbs isn't good enough. and to top it all off, i was all but forced to go back on anxiety medication. since the last SSRI i took caused me to gain 100 lbs practically overnight, we're trying something new. and if i gain a single pound from it, we're going to have some issues to discuss at my next appointment.

i love food and have mixed feelings about exercise. this does not bode well. i am still going to eat the 2nd half of my ginormous, tasty burger with extra cheese, juicy bacon and sweet, sweet onions from chilis. i should savor it slowly. tonight i start my rabbit food diet. i'm not entirely sure what i should be eating (other than no meat and cheese. suckage.) but i don't feel like having a heart attack while i wait for an opening at AMC so i will do my best until then and hopefully i'll be allowed to eat my favorite foods at least occasionally. i am also going to start running this morning. and by run i mean walk kind of fasterish. for now anyways. between asthma, bad knees and missing pieces, i should probably take it easy and avoid yet another medical crisis for the time being. poor amos. my parents, old friends, and i are all very use to the onslaught of random medical malfunctions, but this is all new to him.

anyways, on thursday, i went shooting for the first time. but this post is getting long and i should attempt to sleep again so i will write about that later. at the rate i'm going, that could be in a few hours... hopefully not... i'm going to go chill on the couch with my blankie and read winnie the pooh. best day ever.

2008-04-06T11:30:00.000-04:00

i'm back! i had all my dental work done, and while i'm still in a good bit of pain, i am much less drugged out that i was the past few days. i barely remember anything from thursday evening. i clearly remember, however, that they kept giving me more and more triazolam in the morning because i wasn't getting sleepy at all. apparently my body just had a delayed reaction to the drug since i was a complete zombie that evening, the next day, and part of yesterday. i attempted to go to work on friday. that was pretty much a bad call. stephanie drove me in and i think i was there for like 2 hours before i had to call amos. i remember about half of that day. i successfully made it to work yesterday. i was pretty shaky and dizzy for the first few hours. spent a lot of time sitting. but about half way through my shift everything pretty much cleared up and i was out and about. now if only i could open my mouth all the way...

amos and i were watching some tv show that talked about bottles made from corn. it's pretty neat stuff. since seeing the show, we discovered that our easter fruit bowl from his parents is made from corn, and my delicious tangerine guava mango juice is also in a corn bottle. supposedly it is biodegradable in 100 days. perhaps i will throw it in my neighbor's yard and find out... (just kidding. although because i am curious i might bury it in my garden and see what it looks like in a couple months.) speaking of gardens, i got all my seeds for this year's "crop." our harvest shall consist of carrots, pole beans, honeydew melon, roma tomatoes, and whatever else we got that i can't remember. we also got a weeping pussy willow tree. it's a little midget "tree" that's only about 2 feet tall. i'm going to dig up my dead honeysuckle and put the willow in it's place. at least i think my honeysuckle is dead... i might transplant it's corpse somewhere and see if it comes back. maybe in my pathetic flower bed in the side yard. boy does that need work... it has some very pretty bicolor tuplips, and some flowering onion thing that was growing wild in the yard that i transplanted all together for some sense of order. i might move the tulips up to the front yard with the rest of my bulbs. they're all starting to flower now. i should take a picture. now that i have batteries for my camera, i can resume photography sessions.

ok time to get ready to go to amos's parent's house for the afternoon.

2008-04-01T20:01:00.000-04:00

my dentist appointment got rescheduled for thursday... and so the never-ending panic attack continues on...

2008-03-28T18:51:00.000-04:00

on march 26, i did the unthinkable: i gave up all soda. today is "day 3." i really want some coke.

i knew that in giving up soda, i would be drastically cutting back on my caffeine intake. i did not, however, realize the full magnitude of this effect. my body is in shock and i'm having major withdrawal issues. shakes, sweats, headaches, etc. it's super fantastic. Also, due to my upcoming dental extravaganza, i had to temporarily stop taking my claritin. allergy season has just begun. my brain wants to explode. luckily, hay is not the current allergen, since i seem to have an adverse reaction to it's existence. anyways, add extra-crunchy allergies to my caffeine withdrawal, and i'm sure i've been just a peach to hang around with. sorry guys. :-)

i've decided to do this for several reasons. The first is that i realized i've been going days without drinking any water because i kept reaching for the coke. also, it has so much sodium in it, which is just all around a bad thing. giving up soda will help me lose weight, clear my skin, and improve my bones and teeth. This will also limit my caffeine intake, which is not my goal but still definitely a good thing to do. the fact that i am able to down 2 glasses of pepsi max (with extra caffiene, guarana and all kinds of "energy" crap added to it, and then go immediately to bed, is probably a bad sign.

anyways, go team me. i'm officially asking that if anyone sees me try to get a soda, grab it out of my hands and pour it down the nearest drain. or take a sip for you and spill a sip for your homies. whatever works. thanks.

2008-03-24T21:46:00.000-04:00

the dentist and i are totally not bff. anyone who has known me for a few years knows that i have serious issues with teeth. horrible experiences, unnecessary procedures, and severe pain have all led to a massive fear of the dentist. but, alas, today i made the dreaded trek into my most feared place to deal with yet another painful tooth... my personal favorite tooth which was "watched" by an old dentist for years before becoming a nightmare overnight. this will be the 4th time the tooth has been filled, and i fear it will end with a root canal and crown. at least that does mean an end to the drama of that tooth.

during this visit, i set a new personal record! i now have 11 teeth to be worked on. yes. ELEVEN. the previous record was 9, with 6 being the average. the best visit i had was a mere 2 fillings. anyways, i will be going back on wednesday for my "pre-op" appointment where they will take my vitals and get me some pills and talk to me about the big day. next week i'll be going in for my super super dental extravaganza. I'll be getting one crown replaced because, as usual, it was done wrong the first time. I swear to god, 90% of my dental work has been fixing other people's mistakes. it's so frustrating. i'll be getting a filling and then yet another crown on another tooth. there are 5 more fillings on random teeth, including my special tooth - the reason for the entire appointment, and the one that may end with a root canal and a 3rd crown.. but hopefully not. the remaining 4 teeth are: suprise! fixing past work... they have to shave off the back of my front veneers because they are too big and my lower teeth are smacking into them, causing a chain reaction of badness. they may end up needing to be replaced, which is just fantastic, but hopefully the shaving down will work.

all this will take 6 hours. none of which i remember because i will be totally doped up on fantastic drugs. i'll have to be off work the night before and the day of, and while i will be working the next day, i'm not sure how useful i will be to society. it will be grand.

that's enough of my rant. i'm sure i will have some drugged-up commentary next week.

2008-03-15T21:29:00.000-04:00

yay! my friend Jena from cali has come to visit this weekend. i haven't seen anyone from the best-coast since i moved, so it's been super exciting to have a visitor and to see Jena again. she drove across the county with me when i moved out to virginia 2 years ago. yesterday we went shopping. nothing better than flying 3000 miles across the country to shop at the same stores you have back at home. hah. but it's always great to shop with friends. today we went to DC. pictures will be posted. we took a quick run through the natural history museum since Jena had never been to the smithsonian. then we walked around and saw the capital building, washington monument, lincoln memorial and some random stuff. we started to head towards the national zoo but it was getting too late and we decided it wouldn't really be worth it by the time we got there. I've never been there so I'd like to get back at some point. I've only been to the San Francisco zoo and the San Diego Zoo and Wild Animal Park.
anyways, pictures will be posted once we get them off the cameras. i took a whopping 2 pictures today. amos and jena took many more. it will be grand. i'm now going to suck down my starbucks and head to bed. it's not even 10pm yet on a saturday night and i have company. bed time. how lame is that.

2008-03-06T14:46:00.000-05:00

I have declared this to be international procrastination day. i have a load of laundry waiting to be put in the dryer, a dishwasher that needs to be emptied, a litter box that needs cleaning, leaves to be raked, etc. And what am I doing? making crepes for lunch, taking online iq tests (i'm a ginus!), listening to mp3s and adjusting the settings on my new speakers (pumpin' up the bass), watching the neighbor's dog wander around the yard, texting Jena about what we're going to do when she visits next week, braiding my hair, getting the mail, etc etc.

on a completely unrelated note, sims3 is official now. sweetness. the new website is the lamest thing ever at the moment. why bother posting "coming soon" and nothing else? spend less time on that and more time making the real site. there's no point in going live when you have absolutely nothing to share.

ok time to go finish everything i started 6 hours ago...

2008-02-20T22:19:00.000-05:00

it's very cold out. we had this sorta fake-slushy-snow thing going down that I didn't really get. Finally the clouds cleared up which was very good since we're currently in the middle of a total lunar eclipse. :-) since we haven't had any major volcanic eruptions lately to add ash and debris to the sky, we're able to see the red glow on the moon of light passing through the outer layers of our atmosphere. it's pretty neat. i just wish it were slightly warmer. mid-eclipse will be in 6 minutes, and after taking one last peek at the moon, i'm going to bed. it's been a very tiring few days.

we're under a winter storm watch for the next two days. it sounds like this next storm is going to dump a lot of snow and/or ice on us. I'm off work Friday, when the bulk of the storm is scheduled to arrive, so that's good at least. hopefully I'll be able to get some good pictures. I took some of the moon tonight, which turned out acceptable considering I don't have a zoom lens or anything but other than that, kodak moments have been few and far between.

picture of the day: i just took this with the built-in camera on my macbook. check it out. it's me typing. lol.

2008-02-05T13:00:00.000-05:00

I am currently waiting for FedEx to stop at my house and deliver my new macbook. I even swapped days off at work so I would be here when it came. It's after 1pm. where's my lappy?
to pass the time, I did some more painting in my kitchen. the date on the paint can says we had the color mixed in August. 5 months ago. It so should not take 5 months to finish painting one room. Granted, we have done a lot of other work around the house in that time, but really? Anyways, I was all set to finish the final corner this morning. And then we promptly ran out of paint. So I'm not just waiting for my laptop to arrive so I can have it, I'm also waiting so that I can then go to Lowe's and get more yellow paint for the kitchen and then blue and brown paint for the living room. I'm going to have a super fun time painting the l'room. There's going to be a brown horizontal stripe following the wall around the room. except for the front wall with the door and windows since they're not exactly level... but I have plans for incorporating the brown over there as well. it's going to be hott. Once the living room and bedroom are painted, my next biggest wish will be for carpeting. and for the built-in cabinet in the bathroom. After that, other than completely rearranging all the furniture, the house will be pseudo done! yay!!
ok, time to return to the waiting game. i wish i could put this in fast speed like on the sims. of course, if this were the sims, i'd have used the boolprop cheat by now and made my package appear instantly.

2008-01-31T18:45:00.000-05:00

Today was a very busy day. My parents showed up at our house in the morning with a small load of things they had been storing in their basement. After unloading that, we went inside and looked at wedding invitations. Amos and I already picked out the design, font, ink, and all the fun stuff, so we tweaked around the wording a little bit and my parents are going to order them. woo hoo! Then we drove off to bakery 1. We were there for about an hour getting a lot of questions answered, getting a take-home box of cake and frosting samples and looking at pretty things. Then we went up the street to the florist. We designed my bouquet, the bridesmaid's bouquets, the corsages and the boutineers. (I have no idea how to spell that and apparently my computer also lacks that skill). yay for centerpieces. yay.
*intermission at burger king*
Then we drove to bakery 2. much much quicker visit since we had all our basic cake questions answered at the other place. they can make the same cake. for less. sounds like a plan to me. THEN we went to the photographer. that was fun, very excited about that. woo hoo! so we have the florist and the photographer. and soon the cake. then my parents left for home and I proceeded to take every possible wrong turn on my endless drive home.
On a random note, apparently "ice storm" is the secret trigger phrase for the entire county to go to the gas station and the grocery store. waited for like 15 minutes at the pump and at the grocery store i had several near misses in cart crashes, then waited in line for EVER. and now i am home with my coffee. woot.

2008-01-18T10:06:00.000-05:00

After it stopped snowing yesterday, i ran outside with my ruler. Eight Inches! Later in the evening when I checked the snowfall reports for the region, I found out that we got the most snow of anyone, even down in the city of Staunton. All other reports averaged between 3-5" with the next highest being 6". Very exciting. At least for me. The guy shoveling his driveway last night did not seem as amused as me. Amos and I need to invest in a snow shovel. I used a rake this morning to sorta shove snow into a ramp in front of my car. It took me about 45 minutes to clear the snow off my windows and doors and rake the snow enough to drive into the tire tracks Amos left with his car this morning. I actually had to put my car in neutral once and push it back when it got stuck. But it's snow, and I'm excited and I'd gladly shovel snow all day.

Since I missed 9 hours of work yesterday I'm going to go in super early today and end up working 12-13 hours. I'm off this weekend, but I plan to go in for a few hours in the morning and early afternoon as well. I don't think I'll be able to make up all the time I lost, but the effect on my paycheck will be less noticeable.

Alright, here we go into my first attempt to drive in real snow! (I drove in 1/4 inch snow in Oregon. once.)

2008-01-17T14:20:00.000-05:00

Today is my first snow day ever. My boss called me about an hour before i was supposed to leave for work and said everything was shutting down. So exciting! Amos had just come home early from his work so we ran out and played in the snow with the dog. It was really fun to watch him run around in the snow and chase the stick we kept throwing. It was also really fun to make a snowball, tell him it was a ball and then throw it. It disintegrated when it hit the ground but Nippy kept searching for it. Poor puppy. His fur was covered in ice balls so when we came back inside we gave him a mini bath to melt them off. The snow has since stopped and we're waiting for the ice and freezing rain that is expected this afternoon and evening. Let's see if any tree limbs come crashing down like the last ice storm we had...

2008-01-14T20:34:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the new and improved blog. It will take some time for everything to get sorted out and pretty-like since I'm doing all the html myself, but my hope is that it will be worth it in the end. back to site design!